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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Author: doogiski

  • One Word: Domination

    The sprints today could be summed up as utter dominance by the winners. World Cup fans haven’t been treated to that kind of skiing in a sprint event for a very long time, if ever. Justyna Kowalczyk proved that there is no limit to her powers as she keeps hitting the podium the majority of the races she enters while Emil Jönsson improved his record on Canadian snow as he picked up his third win in four races.

    The conditions were perfect for another day of racing in the Rockies. The air was hovering around -2°C while the snow was -4°C, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the tracks were pristine. The North American athletes showed up very strongly in the qualification with Canada having four women and five men in the top 30 while the Americans put two women and five men in the heats.

    Women

    Kowalczyk absolutely dominated the qualifying by a very impressive 4.5 seconds over second place Petra Majdic. Anna Olsson qualified third while Fabjan continued her good run of form and qualified in fourth. The only big name not to crack the top 30 was Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle who missed qualification by half a second.

    The quarter-finals were pretty straight forward and highlighted by Sara Renner easily winning her heats in front of the home crowd. The quarters were clean affair until the final heat which saw a massive tangle between Anna Olsson and Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes which resulted in a broken pole for the Swede and took both athletes out of the race.

    Kowalczyk showed no signs of weakness as she dominated yet another heat in the semis. With Smutna out lunging Fessel for the final qualifying spot. Havoc wreaked again on the final corner as the women were four wide going under the over pass and Majdic went down. I’m not sure if it was from contact or if she caught an edge. Either way, she looked not too happy as she came across the finish line.

    The finals capped off another great weekend for the Pole as she won in shocking style. She smashed the rest of the field to win by an amazing 7.6 seconds. By the time the others had crossed the line, Kowalczyk already had the sponsors skis in hand celebrating the victory. Sweden’s Ingemarsdotter earned her first individual podium and finished in second while Sara Renner earned the bronze medal. It was a great day for the Canadian as it appears she in the best form of the season and was able to get on the podium in front of the home crowd.

    Results
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Ida Ingemarsdotter
    3. Sara Renner

    North American Watch: Obviously the big headlines will feature Renner and rightly so, but Daria Gaiazova showed that she’s ready for the big show as she had a great qualifier for the second World Cup weekend in a row as she was ninth fastest but ultimately ended up in 12th. Kikkan Randall had a good day and quietly went about skiing to her second top 10 of the season.

    Men

    Emil Jönsson was expectedly the strongest qualifier while Torin Koos had a great qualifier and was in second. Kazakhstan’s Alexey Poltarinen had a great qualifier and was the third fastest. The quarters gave the spectators a sneak peek of what Jönsson was capable of as he led the heat from the gun, then let up and started taking his poles off a good 50 meters before the finish line. Andrew Newell continued his same old story as he qualified well – in 10th – but failed to make it far in the heats as he did not make it out of the quarters.

    Similar to the women’s quarters, all was smooth sailing except one heat. The fourth heat was extremely tight with all six athletes in a tight pack coming down the final hill into the finish straight. Italy’s Pasini caught and edge and subsequently took out the skiers behind him. Those skiers who were behind him happened to be two Canadians in Kershaw and Crooks. You gotta feel bad especially for Crooks who was having a great race in his tightly contested heat and was in the top three as the athletes crested the final hill. This was probably his biggest race of the year as he failed to make the Canadian team for the Olympics.

    Jönsson continued his dominance in the semis as he led from wire to wire before easing up for the win. The second semi saw Dahl win handily with Lind in second.

    The final included three Swedes (Jönsson, Lind, Petersen) and it was a sight to behold. The utter dominance that Emil Jönsson showed was impressive as he actually raced all the way across the line for the first time on the day and won by a whopping 6.6 seconds over Dahl who was able to hold off Cologna as the Norwegian grabbed the silver. Cologna earned his second bronze in as many days and looks in good form for the Olympics.

    Results

    1. Emil Jönsson
    2. John Kristian Dahl
    3. Dario Cologna

    This type of performance will make it exciting to see if a field of the world’s best will be able to deal with Jönsson; in particular, Ola Vigen Hattestad. The Swede’s turbo is better than ever and the hills in Callaghan Valley will play in his favour for that reason. Will Jönsson’s skiing play with the heads of the other athletes?

    North American Watch: It was an impressive day for Koos who put in a great qualifier and finished a decent 11th overall. This is his best World Cup result in just under a year. Kuhn also had a great day, he had a strong first half of his quarter but was overtaken in the final stretch as he didn’t have enough gas to compete for a top two spot and ultimately ended up 0.2 seconds out of a lucky loser position. Same can be said about Widmer and McMurtry who were in the mix until the final stretch.

    Nevertheless, it is very promising to see five Canadian make the top 30 in the sprints. Hopefully a sign for the future.

    With the Olympics only five days away, I’m sure there will be a lot of talk and predictions in the upcoming days so stay tuned, it is now the calm before the storm.

    Til Then.

  • Rybinsk Team Sprints

    The sprint relay’s saw the end of a cold weekend in Russia. Even though the sun was out, it didn’t cut the frigid temperatures that the athletes had to endure. Jürgen Capol decided to run just the finals and not torture the athletes with heats. It worked out for the best as the women’s field only had 10 teams in total and the men’s had 14.

    Women

    There were 10 teams who started the race. The Sloevian team of Fabjan and Visnar – in those ridiculously loud suits – led for the majority of the first three legs, but going up the final hill, Russia II’s Khazova kicked it into high gear and open up a decent gap on the other coming into the half-way point of the race. Germany II and Germany I were having very good races as they were in second and third at the exchange.

    Visnar showed what a strong skater she is as she was able to close the gap and regain the lead for the next exchange as it was down to only three teams: Slovenia, Russia I, and Germany I. On the big uphill, it was Steffy Bohler’s turn to turn the screw as she opened up a huge gap on the final climb. At the final exchange it was 3.7 seconds to Russia and 8.8 seconds that Slovenia had to find.

    All Sachenbacher-Stehle had to due was to ski in control and not fall on the final lap to win the gold medal. Nystad, Fabjan and Switzerland’s Bucher were in a chase pack trying to get onto the podium. Coming into the stadium, Sachenbacher-Stehle eased to the win – the second medal of the weekend for her – as Fabjan overtook Rotcheva in the final stretch to take the silver. Germany II was 7.7 seconds back in fourth place.

    Results
    1. Germany I (Stefanie Böhler and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle)
    2. Slovenia (Katja Visnar and Vesna Fabjan)
    3. Russia I  (Irina Khazova and Olga Rotcheva)

    Men

    The men’s team sprint was tightly packed for the . The pace was set by the Russians and the Italian teams for the majority of the race. At the half way point, Russia held four of the top six spot. At the start of the pinultimate lap, the field was split and the top five teams had a gap on the rest but Germany’s Tim Tscharnke did well to close up the gap before the big uphill to give his teammate; Josef Wenzl, a chance on the final leg.

    With one leg left it was Italy I, Russian I, Belarus, Germany, and Italy II with a five second lead over the rest. It was great grunt work by Zorzi on the last half of the pinultimate lap to get clear of any mess that might of happened had a skier fell on the downhill into the stadium. Fortunately, that did not happen.

    The final lap, saw Petuhkov go hard from the tag-off, and only Frasnelli of Italy II was able to hang on. It was a finish sprint between the two and just as they entered the divided lanes, Frasnelli had a stumble and lost his rhythym which he could not recover from. Ultimately, this led to the Petuhkov cap off a perfect weekend for the Russian men. The German team finished an impressive third and was able to rob the Italian duo of Zorzi and Renato Pasini of a podium spot.

    Results
    1. Russia I (Nikolay Morilov and Alexei Petukhov)
    2. Italy II (Fabio Pasini and Loris Frasnelli)
    3. Germany  (Tim Tscharnke and Josef Wenzl)

    It is two weeks until the World Cup resumes in Canmore, and then it will be the calm before the storm. It is the best storm that happens only every four years.

    Til Next Time.

  • Another Good Day for the Russians

    I’ll start off this post by saying that I didn’t watch the races so I won’t try to sugar-coat anything. Whatever I write here could have probably been decifered by yourself off the results sheet or on another website alredy. First off, the start lists were depressing, it’s as simple as that. There should be some sort of default cut-off for the World Cup…”if you don’t get “x” many registrants for a race, the race won’t go through.”  Today, a whopping 23 females cross the finish line while only 21 men did! It’s embarrassing to see such miniscule numbers for a race of this calibre. I understand that it’s an Olympic year and all, but comeon! 54 finishers on the day, that’s just pathetic. It almost seems like a waste or organizers, officials, and volunteers time. Anyway, enough about my ranting, let’s look at the race.

    Women

    It was the same old story with Justyna Kowalczyk winning yet another race this season. The nickname “Energizer Bunny” was coined to Therese Johaug for her relentless pace, but I think Kowalczyk should adopt the Energizer Bunny ideal or something close to it as “[she] keeps going, and going, and going…” This year, to date the World Cup calendar has had 21 races. Kowaczyk has entered 20 of those and recorded points every time she hits the starting wand. She wants to win everything, and if any women wanted to do that, she’s the one to make it a reality.

    Kowalczyk won handily over Sachenbacher-Stehle who had a great race after having a sub-par start to the season. It appears as though the training camp after the Tour de Ski has worked. Hoepfully, she can continue to improve on her form going into the Olympics. In third, was the 29 year old Russian veteran Olga “Woodchuck” Schuchkina who’s previous World Cup best was a 16th in the pursuit in Vernon back in the 2005-2006 season.

    Khazova’s return to the cicuit saw her turn in a fifth place. It was a decent result for her as it was her first race since before Christmas.

    Results
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle
    3. Olga Schuchkina

    Notes: The Russian Olympic team was named and was interesting to see many “unknown” names on the list including Zavalova, Tchoutchkin, Turysheva, and Chuikov. Surprisingly, veteran of the team Alena Sidko was left off the list.

    Men

    It was another dominating day for the Russian men who swept the podium again. There was a sprint finish between the top seven Today’s winner was relatively new-comer Artem Zhmurko. He showed up well last week in Otepää taking ninth place and continued his impressive form today. It was still not enough to be named to the Russian Olympic squad. Second place went to Ilia Chernousov who is having a good season and third went to Sergey Shiriaev.

    Results
    1. Artem Zhmurko
    2. Ilia Chernousov
    3. Sergey Shiriaev

    Notes: The men’s Russian Olympic side had a few surprises including junior Petr Sedov who has yet to feature in a World Cup race this year. The triple World Junior gold medallist has enormous potential and should be very interesting to see how he matches up against the world’s best. In his only World Cup start in Lahti last season, he ended up a very impressive 10th overall. The team looks to be a serious threat for medals in every discipline, partticularly in the team relays.

    Til Next Time.

  • A Day for the Russian Men

    The course was the same one they have used in previous years with only one major hill right followed by the downhill run out into the home straight. It was another chilly affair on the sprint course as many of the athletes has buffs stretch around their necks. The first corner out of the stadium saw many precarious times during the race with a couple casualties to skis and poles getting tangled up. The fields were staggeringly weak and it showed with the lack of spectators in the grandstand. At the end of the day, it was a first World Cup victory for Slovenian Vesna Fabjan while the Russia men headlined the story on the men’s side.

    Women
    The quarter finals proved the lack of quality in the field as the heats were strung out by the top of the big climb. The inexperienced Russians usually had the pack strung out before the top of the hill. The final saw he best on the day fight it out, but by far the strongest skier on the day who deservedly took the victory.

    Fabjan led all her heats from gun to tape and made it look rather easy. I must say that it was writing on the wall. Fabjan specializes in the freestyle sprints and has start to show up on the results list over the past year-and-a-half. With a fellow country-woman in Majdic to push you in training, I expect the young Slovenian to continue to roll out results like this in years to come. Definitely a dangerous sprint relay duo for the future to challenge the likes of the Scandinavian countries.

    Results
    1. Vesna Fabjan
    2. Majda Genuin
    3. Justyna Kowalczyk

    Men
    The lack of depth in the field was clearly illustrated in the quarters in the second heat. No disrespect to Tim Tsharnke, but he was able to ski back into the heat after he fell out of the gates and qualify second to go through to the semis.

    The first semi saw Morilov take the win with an impressive ski from Wenzl to out-duel the Italians for second place. Petukhov and Zorzi pushed the pace in the second semi which meant that both the lucky losers were drawn from the same heat in the form of Kriukov and Devjatiarov.

    With four Russians in the final, it seemed almost inevitable that a Russian victory was imminent. The final was dominated by the Russians which ensured a sweep of the podium. It appeared that Zorzi had a medal in the bag, but his old-man strength couldn’t stave off the late charging Kruikov. The Russians took all three podium places to the delight of the crowd. Ironically, the 1-2-3 spots just so happened to be in the same position they qualified in, which is a rarity for sprinting.

    Results
    1. Nikolay Morilov
    2. Alexey Petukhov
    3. Nikita Kruikov

    Canada Watch: Canada had two qualifiers today: Crooks and McMurtry. Unfortunately, Crooks got tangled with von Allmen in his final and hit the ground about 10 seconds into his heat and was never able to recover. McMurtry had the similar fate as he was in fourth place coming into the big hill. He kicked it in a turbo to try to break the Russian wall and seemed to trip over himself; subsequently taking out Bolotov in the process.

    Rybinsk Pursuits Preview

    Today will see the second of three races in Rybinsk and just when you thought the start lists couldn’t get any smaller they go and do the impossible…25 women and 29 men to start. That’s right folk, all you have to do tomorrow it simply finish the race and you’ll record World Cup points, it’s as simple as that! The bookmakers have Kowalczyk the favorite at 1.25, but on the men’s side it’s Shiriaev (3.00) then Sommerfeldt (3.25) and Dolidovich (9.00). We’ll see the return of early World Cup leader Irina Khazova. Only two Canadians in McMurtry and Nishikawa in tommorow’s race and it looks like a good time to improve on their World Cup bests of 16th and 26th which were incidently recorded in the same race in Vancouver last year. Prediction time:

    Women’s 15km
    1. Irina Khazova
    2. Justyna Kowalczyk
    3. Yulia Tchkaleva

    Men’s 30km
    1. Ilia Chernousov
    2. Rene Sommerfeldt
    3. Sergey Shiriaev

    Til Next Time.

  • Rybinsk Sprints

    This will be an abbreviated post as this blogger has been bed stricken with the flu. Tomorrow begins the last World Cup weekend before the circuit moves to Canada for the Canmore races and the Olympics. It is perhaps the smallest field ever for a World Cup event. There are no Norwegians or Swedes due to their own nationals. There is also Very limited Italians and no French skiers. Out of the 34 starters for the women’s sprints, exactly half are Russian. On the men’s side, there are only five seeded skiers, all Russians. It’ll be yet another good weekend for skiers down the totem pole to get some World Cup points.

    Women
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Miriam Gössner
    3. Vesna Fabjan

    Men
    1. Alexey Petukhov
    2. Nikolay Morilov
    3. Renato Pasini

    Til Next Time.

  • Swedish Sprint Double

    The weather was beautiful and sunny in Otepää and almost every heat had an exciting finish that went to a photo finish. Qualification saw Saarinen and Jönsson grab the fastest times. The Swede’s showed up very strong today in both the men’s and women’s sides. Whoever though that Sweden would be putting more skiers into the men’s and women’s finals than the Norwegians…perhaps the tables are turning? The Swede’s showed their domination and Jönsson led every single heat he was in from the start to finish while Falk showed her power to out pole Majdic for the win on the women’s side.

    Women

    The first semi saw Majdic and Visnar in the Slovenian suits which are arguably the loudest suits to ever been worn by cross country skiers. Saarinen bossed the pace and made it difficult even for the likes of Majdic. Unfortunately for the Finn, both Majdic and Falk  out sprinted her in the final stretch to take the automatic qualification spots for the final. Luckily, the second heat was much slower and Saarinen got a lucky loser spot to the final.

    The big news in the second semi was Canadian Gaiazova who continued her impressive weekend of World Cup racing as she qualified 10th and was able to get into the semi-final with a lucky loser spot. However, that’s as far as she got in the sprints and ended up 12th on the day. Kowalczyk was one of those who were in the second semi and fell off the back of the pack early on but was able to ski her way back into contention. Coming back into the stadium, the heat was lead by Swede’s Ingemarsdotter and Pajala. It was yet again a very tight heat with all six skiers within 1.1 seconds of each other. Suprisingly, both Kowalczyk and Bjørgen weren’t able to qualify for the final and finished seventh and ninth place on the day.

    The final consisted of three Finns, two Swedes and Majdic. Majdic led out hard and left the other skiers wanting. Coming into the final stretch, it was Falk and Majdic who were going head to head. In the last 15 meters Falk found a gear and put in an amazing amount of power to pole past the Slovenian. As they crossed the finish line, Majdic cocked her head as if to say “hey I can only do so much.” As I said in my blog yesterday, I was very interested in seeing how Falk got on today, and she showed today that she is one to be taken seriously. Her performances earlier in the year weren’t flukes.

    Results

    1. Hanna Falk
    2. Petra Majdic
    3. Aino Kaisa Saarinen

    Notes: Sweden is looking strong on the sprint side as they had five athletes in the quarter finals; four of those skier were able to advance to the semis.

    Men

    Usually this is Norwegian sprinters bread and butter but today it wasn’t the case. Usual sprinters to top the podium such as Rønning, Dahl and Kjølstad were able to qualify for the top 30.

    The first semi was dominated by Jönsson who led from the gun to the line. The second semi saw Lind lead for the beginning, at the top of the main climb, hometown hero Kummel fell. The second semi saw Panzhinskiy and Lind qualify comfortably for the final, but it was not fast enough to see anyone else from the heat pick up any lucky loser spots for the final.

    The final saw Jönsson took the lead early on and lead all the way up the hill out of the stadium with Hattestad and Lind hot on his heels. The heat yo-yoed on the final downhill into the final stretch and it was a race between Jönsson, Hattestad and Kruikov. The Swede managed to barely beat Hattestad on the lunge by half a boot while Kruikov came in third. It was arguably the most exciting finish of the season as the top three were separated by half a ski length.

    Results

    1. Emil Jönsson
    2. Ola Vigen Hattestad
    3. Nikita Kriukov

    Notes: Like the Swedish women, the men showed up to be very strong with six in the top. Only Canadian to qualify, Stefan Kuhn fell in quarter-final, but it looked like he wasn’t going to qualify anyway. China has their best ever qualifier in the men’s event with Qinghai Sun qualify 19th for the day. He was unable to make it out of the quarter-finals. Andrew Newell had yet another good qualifier as he was sixth fastest but was unable to ski out of the quarter-finals and finished 13th overall.

    Til Next Time.

  • Home Field Advantage

    The winners of this years Tour de Ski showed no signs of slowing down as both Kowalczyk and Bauer took the classic victories. It was an important race for many nations as this was the last chance to determine selection for the distance racers going to Vancouver in three weeks time.

    Women

    It’s a head scratcher how Kowalczyk is not tiring yet this season. She showed no signs of weakness of ill-affects of the Tour as she managed to grab another World Cup victory. Early on, Magdalena Pajala from Sweden was the pace setter and had a great race as the 21-year-old Swede ended up 17th. This was the first time she has actually made the points outside of the Tour de Ski. Bjørgen looked extremely strong today, especially going up the big hill at the 2.3km and 8.3km time check. It appeared that the Norwegian was going to take the win, but Kowalczyk managed to find enough to hold off Bjørgen as she had a strong second half and was closing in on the Tour de Ski winner in the last half of the race. It’s beyond me how Kowalczyk is not exhausted the crazy thing is that she is planning to race in Rybinsk and Canmore in the run up to the Olympics.

    There some great analysis done by WorldofXC.com of todays women’s splits and a really interesting read.

    Results
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Marit Bjørgen
    3. Aino-Kaisa Sarrinen

    Notes: Ishida had another great race. This Japanese skier has a strong future and it’s good to see an Asian country have a skier able to be competitive in the field amongst the classical ski. Canada had a lone entrance in Daria Gaiazova who has dominated the Nor-Am circuit back home and had a very good race today finishing in 20th.

    Men

    Today showed how important home field advantage is to the Estonians. Both Veerpalu and Mae had seasonal best by both hitting the podium. Kokk and Rehemaa were 17th and 19th to out four Estonians in the top 20. However, they were denied by Bauer as he completed his Otepaa hat-trick. Other than Bauer, the top 11 places in todays race were dominated by three countries; two Estonians, five Russians, and three Norwegians. We saw new names to the leaderboard, particularly the Russians Artem Zhurko and Egor Sorin. Alexander Kuznetsov was the early leader but failed to keep the pace as you can read over at WorldofXC.com. Jaak Mae had a late charge in the last 2.7km and managed to move up from fifth to the bronze medal to deny any medals to Russia on the day.

    Bauer makes it look so easy, it’s so fluid and smooth that it looks like he’s on a Sunday ski when in fact he’s destroying some of the most fit athletes on this planet. Veerpalu was the only one to be able to keep pace but due to his slower start, he was unable to pull all the time back to take the victory.

    Results
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Andrus Veerpalu
    3. Jaak Mae

    Notes: Graham Nishikawa was Canada’s top skier today in 32nd and had a fast start to the day as he was in 10th at the 2.3km time check but failed to hold the pace. Martin Johansson had a great race as the Swede tied for 14th in todays race and held the leaders spot at the finish for a while before being taking over by Artem Zhmurko. Svartedal was the top Norwegian today in sixth and it’ll be interesting who will be going to Vancouver as part of the Norwegian team.

    Sprint preview

    Tomorrow sees the very exciting Otepää sprints take place. Jönsson is favourited to win (3.30) over Hattestad at (4.20) which is suprising. This years race will take place in the classic style. On the women’s side, Majdic is the favorite at 2.20 while Kowalczyk is at 2.80 and Bjørgen at 4.30.

    We’ll see 16 seeded females in the field of 57. I’m quite excited to see how Hanna Falk gets on tomorrow, quite the fun skier to watch and with a slightly deeper field tomorrow there should be some interesting heats. The men’s field will be much strong than todays as there will be 19 seeded skiers in the 68 field. Predictions:

    Women

    1. Petra Majdic
    2. Marit Bjørgen
    3. Hanna Falk

    Men
    1. Ola Vigen Hattestad
    2. Emil Jönsson
    3. Jon Kristian Dahl

    Til Tomorrow.

  • Otepää Preview

    This weekend sees the last chance for many athletes to qualify to represent their country at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Some big  names won’t be there as they will be resting up after the Tour de Ski. However, most of the athletes that skipped the Tour return to racing as they sharpen their form for Vancouver. The conditions will be rather cold and lots of the skiers will be making note to cover up those bare patches of sking. According the webcam the track conditions look immaculate. Both fields are fairly weak with a shocking TWO seeded racers (Bauer and Nousiainen)in the men’s field while the women’s field sees a slighty more respectable 12 seeded skiers hit the start line. With the small fields, it’ll be a great opportunity for new skiers to the scene to grab some valuable World Cup points.

    In aniticipation of Otepää, it was a bad week for the Fredriksson brothers as they were denied to travel with the Swedish team to race in Estonia. The veteran brothers had yet to qualify for the Olympics yet and this was their last chance. It’s a sad story considering how they received the news as Sweden’s head coach Jocke Abrahamsson text messaged Mathias telling him he won’t be traveling with the team. I find that extremely unprofessional on behalf of Abrahamsson especially considering the contributions of the Fredriksson’s for the Swedish team.  And I’m not the only one who believes that the matter should have been handled differently. Abrahamsson says the reason is to give some World Cup experience to some young skiers. There’s a time and place for everything, and this wasn’t the weekend to bring in fresh blood. I agree with Kjell Erik Christiansen when he says that it was a bad decision to give the youngsters some experience in place of two veterans of more than 15 years trying to punch their ticket to their swan song Olympics as professional skiers. The youngsters who were chosen over the brothers won’t even be going to the Olympics so it seems like a moot decision.

    Everything else seems a go, so without further adieu…predictions:

    Women

    1. Marit Bjørgen
    2. Justyna Kowalczyk
    3. Kristina Smigun-Vaehi

    Men

    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Johan Olsson
    3. Anders Södergren

    Til Tomorrow.

  • Top 10 Performers of the Tour de Ski

    The Tour this year had some of the most impressive performances of the season, and due to the format changes, some races that were more exciting than expected. There were spills and thrills but at the end of the 10-days, there were two champions: Kowalczyk and Bauer. There were many other great performances by athletes so I give to you my top 10 performers of this years edition of the Tour de Ski:

    10. Ivan Babikov – Perhaps my Canadian bias, but Babikov had grown quite the reputation as a skier that will put it all on the line. His skiing in the fifth stage to earn the fastest time of the day. He also had a very impressive race in the climb up Alpe Cermis to secure the fourth fastest time only 5.3 seconds off the win and a meager 2.8 seconds off of the podium. His ninth place overall is a great improvement on his 36th overall which he managed a year prior. A skier that has his best races in the skate technique, he’ll be a threat in Vancouver for the 30km pursuit if he is able to stay with the leaders and ski well within his abilities for the classic portion of the race.

    9. Petra Majdic – The Slovenian has been on the Tour podium for past two seasons. She has also won the sprint rankings the same years. She won three stages this year, but was still unable to win the overall classification (sound familiar?). The combination of the skate technique and the painful climb up Alpe Cermis was kryptonite for the tall Slovenian. Unless she has a monumental lead going into the final stage, I have a hard time seeing her becoming victorious in this prestigious event due to her size and not her talent.

    8. Emil Jönsson – He proved to be a dominant force this year and was leading the overall classification when he abandoned the  Tour to concentrate on his Olympic preparations. With an unfortunate tangle up with Alypov in the final of the Oberhof sprint, he redeemed himself in Prague and had a phenomenal race in stage two skiing to the 10th best time of the day and taking the scalps of Northug, Teichmann, Cologna,  and Legkov among others.

    7. Kristin Størmer-Steira – The small Norwegian had a Tour to remember. She won the final stage but it was not enough to climb onto the podium for this years Tour de Ski. The highlight race had to be the stage three sprints in Oberhof where Størmer-Steira unexpectedly made it to the finals and finish fifth. Perhaps next year Størmer Steira will make the Tour podium as the first Norwegian female to do so since its inaugural year when Bjørgen claimed second overall.

    6. Jean Marc Gaillard – Based on pure time (no bonus seconds) he was the seconds fastest skier in the Tour behind Bauer. Quietly went about his business and racked up two top five placings including the third fastest time up Alpe Cermis. I think he’s one of the most underrated skiers on the Tour as he has been skiing in the shadows of France’s ski star Vincent Vittoz, but as it stands right now he’s the best Frenchman on the circuit as he sits fifth overall in the World Cup standings.

    5. Daniel Rickardsson – The Swedish men had a very strong performance in this year’s Tour and Rickardsson was a big part of that team. He had a breakthrough performance in stage six as the 27-year-old recorded his first ever World Cup victory. He surpassed everyone’s expectations and finished eighth overall in this years Tour which was an improvement on last years 24th overall placing.

    4. Riitta-Liisa Roponen – After skiing for years in the shadows of Saarinen and Kuitunen. The likes of Roponen and Sarasoja showed how deep the Finnish ladies team is right now. Add in Muranen and it’s no surprise that they dominated the women’s Nations Cup last year. Roponen is coming into the best form of her life as the 11 year veteran of the circuit and showed great form as she skied to the seconds fastest time of the final stage, only three seconds behind Størmer Steira. The skate specialist turned in a very impressive sixth overall in this years Tour and looks to be an integral part of the women’s relay team for the Olympics.

    3. Justyna Kowalczyk – We’ve all come to expect that Kowalczyk with throw down every race she enters. We saw this first hand at the Torino Olympics when she collapsed from exhaustion going up the final hill in the 10km classic and was unable to finish. The Pole is a true all-rounder, she is a threat whether the races is a sprint of a 30km in classic or skate. She had great performances and showed she deserved the title as she was on the podium four times in this years Tour.

    2. Petter Northug – The 24 year old turned in five great podium finishes (three wins and two seconds places) and it looked like he was going to walk away with this years Tour. Was he burned out after he put so much effort into the early stages? Probably. Some chalked up his inability to win the Tour to a flaw in the way the bonus seconds were distributedwhile other stated it was simply fatigue that failed him. He was undoubtably the star of the first half of the Tour. He’s still easily the best male all-rounder to come along in the ski community for a while. But the amount of paper talk about how he should’ve won the Tour is getting ridiculous. If you strip it to the bare bone, Bauer was the faster skier; in fact, the Norwegian had the seventh fastest time when you take away all the bonus seconds. It’s been discussed greatly in the comments section of the previous post. Still, one of the most/if not THE most talented skiers in the world today.

    1. Lukas Bauer – The Czech skier has slipped into a group of athletes I like to refer to as the “hard hat racers”. It includes those racers who roll up the sleeves and do what has to be done to try to win the race. Sometimes it pays off, but sometimes it doesn’t. In Bauer’s case, it’s more often than not. That’s why it’s so exciting to watch them cause the degree of predicitability is really low. These type of racers are my favorite. The ones that aren’t afraid to take the race by the throat and go until they can’t go anymore. The Babikov’s, Sodergren’s and Kowalczyk’s define this category for me and with Bauer’s performances in the final two stages, he’s proved a worthy candidate. He looked like he deserved to be in a class of his own and his performances have been described as “incredible” and “out of this world”. Skiers said he made it look so easy while some think he may be doped. I think it’s hard work paying off.

    I know my list will probably be different from everyone elses, but I’d like to hear who your top 10 or even top 5 athletes/performances of this years Tour was. So hop on down to the comments section and share your opinion with me and the other readers.

    Til Next Time.

    P.S. If you happened to miss any of the races from this years Tour, you can now download all the races following the links in the media page.

  • The Aftermath

    The Tour is done another year and most athletes will start to look forward to the Olympics while some have their sights on more immediate races that will be taking place in Otepaa this coming weekend. Numerous athletes have yet to qualify to represent their country and this is their last chance to prove their worthiness. It should be another great weekend of racing. Arguably, my favourite race took place in Otepaa back in the 2005-2006 season when Bjorn Lind was at the height of his sprinting powers. In the final, he absolutely destroyed the field by such a margin that he was able to bow to the crowd on the home straight. You can check out the race for yourself on youtube. Four years after that win, he will go to Otepaa to fight it out with his teammates to punch his ticket to Vancouver.

    This years edition of the Tour de Ski saw record numbers of participants, but also record numbers of drop-outs. A total of 42 female athletes completed the Tour out of the 74 that started 10 days ago in Oberhof. That equates to 57% of the athletes completing all eight stages while the men’s side had an even worse ratio as 39 of the 88 men finish…a mere 44%. The Olympics and Otepaa obviously had their say on the amount of drop-outs due to racers choosing – smartly – to prioritize those races instead.

    Langrenn.com has gone about doing some confidence padding calling Northug the king of this years Tour and how he won the hearts of Norwegians. Also, another article has raised questions about the rules of the Tour, citing there aren’t anough bonus seconds. I’m sure if Northug had won, this wouldn’t topic even be discussed. There are many different views on this but the response of Norway’s sports director Åge Skinstad says it all, “I will not talk about it now. Then it sounds as if I am a bad loser.” At the end of the day Bauer was the fastest skier over the past 10 days and it’s as simple as that. If you compare how many bonus seconds Northug (136 seconds) racked up compare to Bauer (60 seconds), Northug had 76 seconds of additional help to win the Tour but he didn’t deliver. Had no bonus seconds been awarded in this years Tour, the final standings would’ve looked like this…

    1. Lukas Bauer                  4:14:10.6
    2. Jean Marc Gaillard           +1:26.6
    3. Dario Cologna                  +1:42.2
    4. Rene Sommerfeldt            +2:01.4
    5. Marcus Hellner                 +2:03.4
    6. Daniel Rickardsson           +2:25.3
    7. Petter Northug               +2:32.4
    8. Ivan Babikov                    +2:36.8
    9.Georgio Di Centa              +2:43.4
    10.Axel Teichmann              +3:10.0

    So how many more bonus seconds should be introduced if the Norwegian’s had their way? Well even if Northug had qualified and won the Prague sprints (which was unlikely due to the form of Jönsson), he still would’ve needed another 16 seconds on top of the Prague sprint bonus to overtake Bauer.

    Some have suggested to add bonus seconds to the pursuits. I think this is a bad idea and tilts the playing field unfairly. It would be like “making the rich richer while the poor get poorer” in terms of athletics. It would essentially make it easier for those in the lead to make their lead even bigger while those who were chasing fell further behind.

    Others argue that sprinters don’t have a chance because of the format, but one has to remember the roots of cross-country skiing and that sprinting is something realtively new to this sport. Skiing was never an all out sprint that was over only 1-2kms. I think next years version of the Tour will be even better and I don’t believe that more bonus seconds should be handed out.

    I think there was an ample amount of bonus seconds up for grabs in this Tour and if someone of Northug’s calibre can’t win the Tour by having that many bonus seconds on his competitors..tough. Is Bauer the best all-rounder? Not a chance, Northug still holds that crown, but Bauer is easily the best distance skier in the world right now and his achievements over the past two days of distance racing is frightening for those who will be racing him in the near future.

    In the World Cup overall standings, Northug now has a demanding lead over the rest of the athletes. Bauer is in seconds and 397 points adrift while Hellner rounds out the top three 433 points off of Northug.

    On the womens side, Kowalczyk and Majdic are rather close with the Pole ahead of the Slovenian by only 67 points. Saarinen is in third and 300 points back of Kowalczyk.

    On a more somber note, the Russian’s Alypov and Kuznetsov didn’t drop out of the Tour prior to stage 7. Reports from ski-nordique.net suggest that the two Russians were banned from the races due to hemoglobin levels above the allowed limit. Speculate what you will from that, all I know is that this will not help lift the doping cloud of suspicion off the Russian team.

    Til Next Time.

  • Stage 8: Blistering Bauer

    The Aple Cermis is becoming a place where no one is safe. Not only is it a daunting task, but more often than not, the athletes are surrounded by other who want to get to point B before they do. It doesn’t matter if you have almost 30 seconds on your closest competitor, it seems no one is safe within a minute of each other. All that matters is if you can beat them to the top. Today was another classic example of this as the Tour leaders coming into the final stage were different than the ones that won this years edition of the Tour de Ski. Kowalczyk rolled up the sleeves (literally), put on the hard hat and went to work and successfully won her first Tour de Ski title. Bauer on the other hand, dismantled the best all round skier in the world for the second day in a row to take his second Tour title in three years.

    Women

    At 1.7km, Majdic had actually gained a couple seconds on the chasers, but all that was erased by the next time check at 3.5km. Early on, it was actually the race for 5th that was the most interesting between Sidko, Størmer-Steira, Longa, Roponen and Savialova. They had quickly bunch together and actually saw Stormer Steira surprisingly stuggle to keep with that group.

    At 5.6km, it was the same story for the top three with no real movement, but the important thing was now that Kowalczyk could see Majdic and Follis could see the Pole. Only 900m later, Kowalczyk had alredy gained eight seconds on the Slovenian as they were starting the final ascent.

    It was slighty before the 7.4km time check that Kowalczyk got onto the heels of Majdic and you knew the Pole could taste blood. However, instead of immediately attacking, she just stayed behind the big Slovenian and bided her time. As soon as they past the 8.1km time check, Kowalczyk made her move and attempted to pass Majdic. It took a while due to the crawl that they were going at, but she eventually took over and never looked back. You could tell Majdic was broken and Kowalczyk easily opened up a fair gap. With 200 meters left, Kowalczyk had secured the victory but in typical fashion pushed it all the way until the finish only to crumple into an exhausted heap of athlete.

    Størmer-Steira had a strong race to take 5th overall. It was close between her and Medvedeva for fastest time of the day as the Russian was the big mover of the day going from 22nd to 12th.

    4th Edition of the Tour de Ski
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Petra Majdic
    3. Arianna Follis

    Though Majdic didn’t win the Tour this year, she can take comfort knowing that she won the sprint ranking by a margin of 1:04 over Arianna Follis. This is the second year in a row that Majdic has was the sprint title. All the athletes who made the podium were ecstatic with there performances over the past 10 days and will now be resting up for the upcoming World Cup. While Majdic and Kowalczyk will be going to Otepää, Follis will be skipping that weekend but will continue World Cup racing in Canmore.

    This is the first year in Tour history that a Finnish skier has not been on the podium; more specifically, the first time Kuitunen hasn’t been on the podium.

    Stage 8 Results
    1. Kristin Størmer-Steira
    2. Riitta-Liisas Roponen
    3. Evgenia Medvedeva

    Notes: This years results for the fastest time up Alpe Cermis were extremely tight as 3.9 seconds seperated the podium for the
    day. Sara Renner had a very successful Tour de Ski this year and finished in 18th.

    Men

    Northug started with an eight second lead but was predictably reeled in by Bauer over the first 2.7km. The chase group that consisted of Teichmann, Cologna, Hellner, Rickardsson and Gaillard quickly formed to fight for the last podium place. At 4.5km, it was Bauer who took the lead and was controlling the pace. Behind the leaders and chase group, many micro-groups of two to three skiers were forming including an enticing twosome of Babikov and Heikinnen who would be challenging for the time of the day.

    At the base of the Alpe Cermis is where all the action started to happen. Lukas Bauer seemed to turn the screw and easily pulled away from Northug. Northug looked exhausted with his head already dropping and bobbing around. By 7.5km, Bauer had a 13.6 second lead and that lead was extended to 42.6 seconds by 8.4km. The chase group had its own drama and Teichmann was dropped at the base of the climb while Rickardsson was able to hang on until about 8km.

    With 900m left, Bauer had secured his second Tour de Ski victory in three years as he was 1:03.8 ahead of the pre-Tour favourite. At the base of the finish lanes, Bauer did a quick shoulder check to make sure Northug was nowhere to be found and stopped to grab the Czech flag and skied it proudly over the finish line to collect his second Tour de Ski victory in the past three years.

    It was not long after Northug came across the finish line that the sprint for 3rd place came storming to the finish. Cologna started his sprint very early and showed some impressive skiing to keep the pace going to the dismay of Gaillard and Hellner as they eventually melted away to give Cologna 3rd place overall.

    Bauer made today’s stage look easy as he seemlessly glided up the Aple Cermis while other athletes looked like a Raggedy Ann dolls as they climbed to the finish. Not only did he show devestating form, he also showed a lot of class as he waited for Northug and Cologna to congratulate them on a job well done before he started celebrating his victory.

    4th Edition of the Tour de Ski
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Petter Northug
    3. Dario Cologna

    Even though Northug failed to win the Tour this year, he did win the sprint rankings for the second time in his career. A little consolation for all his hard work in this years Tour.

    Stage 8 Results
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Marcus Hellner
    3. Jean Marc Gaillard

    What’s truly amazing about Bauer winning today’s stage is the fact that he slowed down to pick a Czech flag from the crowd and skied the last 100 or so meters non chaluantly while Hellner and Gaillard skied hard the whole race and sprinted the last couple hundred meters! Truly, some inspiring skier and a definite medal threat for the Olympics in all distance events.

    Notes: The Canadian men had their best Tour de Ski results ever. Babikov picked up one stage win and a fourth place up the Alpe Cermis to ski his way to 9th overall. Despite all the back luck, Kershaw still finished in 16th and Harvey finished off his first Tour with a very strong 22nd overall.

    I’ll be back tomorrow with more wrap-up from this years Tour de Ski.

    Til Then.

  • Stage 8: Blistering Bauer

    The Aple Cermis is becoming a place where no one is safe. Not only is it a daunting task, but more often than not, the athletes are surrounded by other who want to get to point B before they do. It doesn’t matter if you have almost 30 seconds on your closest competitor, it seems no one is safe within a minute of each other. All that matters is if you can beat them to the top. Today was another classic example of this as the Tour leaders coming into the final stage were different than the ones that won this years edition of the Tour de Ski. Kowalczyk rolled up the sleeves (literally), put on the hard hat and went to work and successfully won her first Tour de Ski title. Bauer on the other hand, dismantled the best all round skier in the world for the second day in a row to take his second Tour title in three years.

    Women

    At 1.7km, Majdic had actually gained a couple seconds on the chasers, but all that was erased by the next time check at 3.5km. Early on, it was actually the race for 5th that was the most interesting between Sidko, Størmer-Steira, Longa, Roponen and Savialova. They had quickly bunch together and actually saw Stormer Steira surprisingly stuggle to keep with that group.

    At 5.6km, it was the same story for the top three with no real movement, but the important thing was now that Kowalczyk could see Majdic and Follis could see the Pole. Only 900m later, Kowalczyk had alredy gained eight seconds on the Slovenian as they were starting the final ascent.

    It was slighty before the 7.4km time check that Kowalczyk got onto the heels of Majdic and you knew the Pole could taste blood. However, instead of immediately attacking, she just stayed behind the big Slovenian and bided her time. As soon as they past the 8.1km time check, Kowalczyk made her move and attempted to pass Majdic. It took a while due to the crawl that they were going at, but she eventually took over and never looked back. You could tell Majdic was broken and Kowalczyk easily opened up a fair gap. With 200 meters left, Kowalczyk had secured the victory but in typical fashion pushed it all the way until the finish only to crumple into an exhausted heap of athlete.

    Størmer-Steira had a strong race to take 5th overall. It was close between her and Medvedeva for fastest time of the day as the Russian was the big mover of the day going from 22nd to 12th.

    4th Edition of the Tour de Ski
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Petra Majdic
    3. Arianna Follis

    Though Majdic didn’t win the Tour this year, she can take comfort knowing that she won the sprint ranking by a margin of 1:04 over Arianna Follis. This is the second year in a row that Majdic has was the sprint title. All the athletes who made the podium were ecstatic with there performances over the past 10 days and will now be resting up for the upcoming World Cup. While Majdic and Kowalczyk will be going to Otepää, Follis will be skipping that weekend but will continue World Cup racing in Canmore.

    This is the first year in Tour history that a Finnish skier has not been on the podium; more specifically, the first time Kuitunen hasn’t been on the podium.

    Stage 8 Results
    1. Kristin Størmer-Steira
    2. Riitta-Liisas Roponen
    3. Evgenia Medvedeva

    Notes: This years results for the fastest time up Alpe Cermis were extremely tight as 3.9 seconds seperated the podium for the
    day. Sara Renner had a very successful Tour de Ski this year and finished in 18th.

    Men

    Northug started with an eight second lead but was predictably reeled in by Bauer over the first 2.7km. The chase group that consisted of Teichmann, Cologna, Hellner, Rickardsson and Gaillard quickly formed to fight for the last podium place. At 4.5km, it was Bauer who took the lead and was controlling the pace. Behind the leaders and chase group, many micro-groups of two to three skiers were forming including an enticing twosome of Babikov and Heikinnen who would be challenging for the time of the day.

    At the base of the Alpe Cermis is where all the action started to happen. Lukas Bauer seemed to turn the screw and easily pulled away from Northug. Northug looked exhausted with his head already dropping and bobbing around. By 7.5km, Bauer had a 13.6 second lead and that lead was extended to 42.6 seconds by 8.4km. The chase group had its own drama and Teichmann was dropped at the base of the climb while Rickardsson was able to hang on until about 8km.

    With 900m left, Bauer had secured his second Tour de Ski victory in three years as he was 1:03.8 ahead of the pre-Tour favourite. At the base of the finish lanes, Bauer did a quick shoulder check to make sure Northug was nowhere to be found and stopped to grab the Czech flag and skied it proudly over the finish line to collect his second Tour de Ski victory in the past three years.

    It was not long after Northug came across the finish line that the sprint for 3rd place came storming to the finish. Cologna started his sprint very early and showed some impressive skiing to keep the pace going to the dismay of Gaillard and Hellner as they eventually melted away to give Cologna 3rd place overall.

    Bauer made today’s stage look easy as he seemlessly glided up the Aple Cermis while other athletes looked like a Raggedy Ann dolls as they climbed to the finish. Not only did he show devestating form, he also showed a lot of class as he waited for Northug and Cologna to congratulate them on a job well done before he started celebrating his victory.

    4th Edition of the Tour de Ski
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Petter Northug
    3. Dario Cologna

    Even though Northug failed to win the Tour this year, he did win the sprint rankings for the second time in his career. A little consolation for all his hard work in this years Tour.

    Stage 8 Results
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Marcus Hellner
    3. Jean Marc Gaillard

    What’s truly amazing about Bauer winning today’s stage is the fact that he slowed down to pick a Czech flag from the crowd and skied the last 100 or so meters non chaluantly while Hellner and Gaillard skied hard the whole race and sprinted the last couple hundred meters! Truly, some inspiring skier and a definite medal threat for the Olympics in all distance events.

    Notes: The Canadian men had their best Tour de Ski results ever. Babikov picked up one stage win and a fourth place up the Alpe Cermis to ski his way to 9th overall. Despite all the back luck, Kershaw still finished in 16th and Harvey finished off his first Tour with a very strong 22nd overall.

    I’ll be back tomorrow with more wrap-up from this years Tour de Ski.

    Til Then.

  • Stage 8 Preview

    Tomorrow could be the most exciting finale to a Tour de Ski we have ever seen. There are 30 seconds separating Majdic and Kowalczyk while Northug and Bauer have eight seconds between them; a gap like that will be fairly useless as I can see Bauer catching Northug within the first couple kilometers. The other interesting battle will be the race for the men’s final podium spot. There are five athletes starting tomorrow stage all within 28 seconds of each other. If they bunch up before the ascent up Alpe Cermis, there will be some great action going on behind the fight for this years title.

    In case you have been living in a box with regards to World Cup skiing the past five years, here is an image that will scare the crap out of anyone that has strapped on the skinny skis.

    Northug’s game plan for tomorrow is rather straight forward; “My tactics for tomorrow will be faster than Lukas and be the first on top of Alpe Cermis. It’s another matter entirely if he actually successfully executes it. Prior to the Tour, Northug wanted to have a minute lead on any competitor prior to the final climb. He doesn’t quite have that time luxury and will have to dig hard to stay with Bauer because you know Bauer will not be waiting around for a sprint finish. Even Norwegian trainer Morten Aa Djupvik said that he would tip Bauer as the winner for tomorrow if he didn’t know the capabilities of Northug as an athlete… interesting.

    A Facebook has been created to give a “bounty” to the first Swedish athlete outsprint Northug. The group is called “100 kr per edlem till den svensk som kan spurta ner Northug!” Roughly translated, “100 kroner (approx $20) per person to the Swede who can sprint down Northug!” It was created on Wednesday and due to widespread publicity, it has grown to 947 members. Though reading through the comments, it seems half of the members are Norwegian beeking the Swede’s because they are sore losers and that Northug will never be beaten by a Swede. Rather humorous in my opinion. Just some more fuel to the flames I guess. :)

    Also, in the world of Northug, tonight he won “Male Athlete of the Year” and “Name of the Year” at the Norwegian Sports Gala. Since the awards were given out a night, Northug had already gone to bed and the awards were accepted on his behalf by Morten Aa Djupvik. Perhaps this is the spur that the Norwegian needs to get the job done tomorrow.

    The bookmakers have Kowalczyk (1.44) and Bauer (1.65) pretty heavy favorites to take away the titles. Those odds are not very generous for those laying money down but I can’t say I disagree. Prediction time:

    Women
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Petra Majdic
    3. Arianna Follis

    Men
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Petter Northug
    3. Dario Cologna

    Til tomorrow, let the best skier win.

  • Stage 7: Bonus Second Mania

    The biggest theme in todays races was the amount of bonus seconds up for the athletes to gain to increase their lead or decrease their deficit on the other athletes. The women were skiing 10km with three intermediate sprints while the men were doing 20km with six opportunities to grab bonus seconds. Five more women dropped the Tour while seven more men exited including George Grey who abandoned the Tour due to re-aggravating an old lower lack injury after crashing in the 10km race.

    Women

    A quick pace from the start caught the field out and a lead pack of four…Majdic, Kowalczyk, and Størmer-Steira with Saarinen in no-mans land between the leaders and the ensuing chase group. At the end of the first lap, the first set of bonus seconds were up for grabs and Majdic grabbed then with quite some ease. The 3.3km mark saw a substantial gap open up of 15 seconds from the lead three to a chase group that consisted of the majority of the rest of the field.

    Over the next kilometer a combination of the lead three slowing down and some smart skiing from the main pack saw the two merge to one big group once again. The charge to catch up was led by Longa and to a lesser extent Renner. The second set of bonus seconds was dominated by Majdic again but this Sidko got into the mix and took 10 bonus seconds with Kowalczyk picking up the remaining five seconds.

    The last lap was frantic as the main group split into a lead pack of four (Majdic, Kowalczyk, Størmer-Steira, and Savialova) and a the main group that desperately tried to keep pace. On the big downhill before the final short up-hill. The pack seemed to re-coil and were once again all together madly fighting for the final 300 meters. The final sprint was madness and Majdic had to out-lunge the Kazakhstan skier Elena Kolomina (What?!) by a boot and a half for the win. Marianna Longa just did enough to hold of top Fin of the day Riikka Sarasoja. It was a great result for Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren who ended up in sixth.

    Results
    1. Petra Majdic
    2. Elena Kolomina
    3. Marianna Longa

    Notes: Not only did Majdic win the race on waxless skis in dominating fashion, but her biggest rivals gave up some precious time. Størmer-Steira’s lack of sprinting prowess as she slipped to 18th in the final 300m while Kowalczyk was uncharacteristically not in the fight at the end and ended up 23rd and 15.5 seconds behind the Slovenian. Aino Kaisa Saarinen was the biggest surprise as she dropped off the pace early on and finished in 28th, almost half a minute off the pace. A huge blow was dealt to the Norwegian women’s side as Vibeke Skofterud was disqualified today as the jury claimed that she skated too much in today’s race. I’m sure the Norwegian team will be furious at the verdict and it’s unclear yet if any further action will be taken to appeal the decision.

    Men

    The men’s race surrounded one thing: the intermediate sprints. The start of the race was led out by Gaillard and he had a say in the first round of sprint bonuses as he was second and collect 10 crucial seconds. Østensen collected the full amount while Bauer was third.

    There were some big team tactics from Sundby and Northug in the second round to sprint bonuses. After capturing the seconds, Northug gave Sundby a “pound” for his good work. All three Canadians were looking strong and traveling in the same main pack when Northug, Sundby and Baurer were swallowed up after their efforts.

    The next round of sprint bonuses at 10km saw Bauer, Northug and Babikov break open a big lead over the rest of the field and passed the time check 22.5 seconds ahead of the next skier. Northug confidently and cockily took the point by pulling up beside Bauer and looked at him while doing just enough to “lunge” him at the line to get the 15 seconds. The trio set out of the stadium, but the pace was too much for Babkikov and he sank back into no-mans land and by 11.6km he was 15 seconds behind the lead two but 10 seconds ahead of the chase pack.

    With only Bauer and Northug contesting for the maximum you knew who was going to take the next 15 bonus seconds and Bauer knew too. The pace didn’t increase at all and Northug pulled out from behind Bauer with 30 meters left and a couple poles later pulled ahead of the Czech skier. Going out of the stadium, Northug tucked back in behind Bauer and they started back out of the stadium. Northug finally cracked near the top of the big climb out of the stadium and Bauer was able to open up an impressive 19 second lead. It was quite evident that Northug’s wax was failing him and he was stuck in no-mans land.

    At the penultimate sprint bonus, Bauer took the 15 with Northug and Cologna collecting the 10 and 5 seconds respectively. Bauer had also increased his lead at the 16.6km mark to 22 seconds on Northug and 42 seconds on the rest of the pack. With only 1.7km remaining, Bauer had secured the victory and was now 40 seconds up on Northug. The pack was breathing down the Norwegian’s neck as they had closed to within six seconds and were going in for the kill. While Bauer wanted to maximize the damage, Northug was desperately trying to keep the pack off so he could capture the last 10 bonus seconds. Northug was caught by Teichmann and
    Cologna but was able to hold them off as he took second place while Teichmann took the bronze for the day.

    With all the sprint bonuses collected by Bauer and Northug, the Norwegian only came out 10 seconds on top. Due to Bauer’s strong performance, Northug actually lost 21 seconds overall to the Czech skier today. Tomorrow will be very exciting as Bauer only sits 8.3 seconds back of Northug.

    Results
    1. Lukas Bauer
    2. Petter Northug
    3. Axel Teichmann

    Canada Watch: With Grey out of the Tour, it only left Babikov, Harvey, and Kershaw. Babikov was very strong early on and even got into some sprint bonuses but quickly slipped back into the chase group as the pace that Bauer and Northug set was too fast. He eventually cross the finish line in 25th and 1:38 back of Bauer. Kershaw had a disaster-free race and finished in 22nd while Harvey continued to go about business quietly and ended up a very respectable 13th.

    Talk to you later.

  • Stage 7 Preview

    Today’s rest day announced the second of two rest days that the athletes have welcomed with open arms. Most of them will be sleeping copious amounts and eating as much as is humanly possible to refuel and top up for the final two stages of this years Tour. The course profile for tomorrow looks very undulating on the 3.3km map. This will be great for spectators but six laps for the men will be a little monotonous. The odds on favourites are Kowalczyk (2.10) and Northug (1.50) for the mass starts. Yesterday, I mentioned how it’ll be nearly impossible to gain any time in the mass start races; however, I completely forgot about the bonus seconds that are up for grabs, which turns my comment around 180 degrees. The races tomorrow will have a make-or-break mentality for many of those racers within two minutes of the leaders. It is also the last time that athletes will have a say in who skis away with this years Sprint bib; currently Østensen and Majdic are the holders.

    It appears that Johaug is not starting tomorrow’s race , but will be staying in Italy to train for the rest week and fly home with the team when they finish the Tour. It’s unfortunate the amount of negative press Johaug has got due to her performances from the past week, but hopefully she’ll have a clear head by the time Otepää comes back and shows the energizer bunny that we’ve all come to know and love.

    Langrenn.com has reported that part of the Finnish team (Heikkinen, Saarinen, and Jauhojärvi) will be wearing a new ski suit tomorrow. It is thinner than the conventional ski lycra and resembles a bicycle suit. Personally, I think that it will make such a miniscule difference it won’ matter in a race such as a mass start where you tend to be going the groups pace rather than your own for the majority of the time. Perhaps, in the wind tunnel and all the testing they do, it showed enough advantage that it was be quite advantageous for individual start races. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Prediction time:

    Women
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Aino Kaisa Saarinen
    3. Marianna Longa

    Men
    1. Petter Northug
    2. Axel Teichmann
    3. Lukas Bauer

    A little follow up from yesterday’s Toblach races. Upon writing yesterday’s post, I was still unsure about what had happened to Devon Kerhaw in the final portion of the race. Well, it appears his luck over the past two weeks has been absolutely brutal. When I read his summary of the past few races, I was laughing to myself. Not a “this is hilarious” laugh, but a “I can’t believe this could all happen to one person” laugh. First, he contracted bronchitis over the Christmas break which hampered his Tour preparations. Then in the Prague sprints, his pole broke 20 seconds into the race and he had to ski at the back of the pack for the next half until he got a new stick. Then yesterday, in the words of Kershaw himself…

    Then – the unthinkable happened. I came out of a tuck, did a kick double pole stride. To my surprise my ski was launched behind me – and was no longer attached my boot. In total shock, I stopped. Turning around, I skied back to my ski (about 20 m behind me). I looked down, and noticed right away that I no longer had the front my binding on the ski anymore (the part that is attaches my boot to the ski), and it was completely ripped out of my ski. I was in real trouble, the Tour de Ski overall quickly evaporating…

    I began to scooter up the longest/toughest hill with only one ski and was yelling at everyone I saw for a “Salomon binding ski.” Nobody I passed had one. Not the Norwegians, Finns, Germans, French, Italians, Swiss, etc… had a ski.

    I skied for over 1 kilometer up the longest uphill from the bottom to the top with only one ski. I then descended on one ski, and started up the last climb of the course – still with one boot “sans-ski.”

    Finally, one of our staff was at the top of that climb (about 1km from the line) and had a ski. I put on the ski, and sprinted for my life – but there was only 1 kilometer to go, and the massive, debilitating damage had been done…

    …We (our team) switched over to the latest Salomon binding (which is much better than the old “pilot classic”) at the beginning of the season, and all I can think of is that perhaps in changing the binding the bond between screw-binding-ski was compromised in some way…

    I’m sure the “what ifs” are killing him right now, I know they’re running through my brain. I’m sure if this string of unfortunate events hasn’t happened, he’d be sitting comfortably inside the top 10 overall. However, it ain’t over til the fat lady sings and Kershaw has shown that he’s in good form in the Tour, now hopefully no more sickness or freak equipment failures will happen and he will finish the Tour very strongly.

    Kershaw wasn’t the only one that had frustration built into their race yesterday. Vincent Vittoz also had a good race going and was hot on the heels of Northug who started a lap in front of him. Coming into stadium, Vittoz was concentrating so hard on the Norwegian in front of him he accidently followed him into the lap lane instead of the finish lane. He quickly realized his error but the damage had been done and lost some crucial seconds and ended up in 13th. He was only eight seconds out four seconds out of a top 10 placing.

    Til Tomorrow.

  • Stage 6: A Beautiful Day For Racing

    The conditions were seemingly perfect as it was sunny and blue skys with the temperature hovering around -4°C. The races were fast with the winning times of 23:14 for the men over 10km and 12:37 for the women over 5km. Today was a chance for those classic specialist take a bite out of the lead times if they had good races as the only thing that the athletes informed on how they were doing was splits rather than the racers around them. There was not really a lot of opportunity to see the racers as there was only three different cameras set up a long the course, the start, the 2.2km check and the finish.

    Men

    Daniel Rickardsson took his first ever World Cup victory as he edged out Lukas Bauer by 1.7 seconds. Northug was third while Teichmann’s master pacing had him end up in fourth even though he was already 15 seconds down and in 37th place at the 2.2km time check. The field has gotten smaller and smaller and today saw only 58 racers cross the finish line. That’s 30 less than the 1st stage in Oberhof. Devon Kershaw was having a great run, sitting in 8th at the 7.2km mark. Then everything unfolded, somehow Kerhsaw’s binding broke in the last couple kilometers and he lost almost 48 seconds in the final ending up in a frustrating 37th place. After the race, Rickardsson had this to say…

    I am very happy about my race today. It is my first victory on the World Cup level so it is amazing. My tactics was to race fast in the first lap and maintain speed in the second one as well.I felt quite in the good shape in the morning. Usually I amstronger in classic technique. The next race on Saturday is in classic technique too so I could be in a good shape there as well. The final climb is very tough so we will see.

    Right now the Swede sits in 5th overall, it’ll be tough, if not impossible to make up anytime in the 7th stage as it’s a mass start. If any break aways are attempt, there’ll be those who will do everything to reel the skier back in as to not lose anymore time in the overall classification. The past couple years in the Tour he has been 24th and 47th, so as long as he skis decent races in the last two stages, he should set himself up nicely for a career best. The top eight in the men’s division are now separated by slightly less than a minute which will make for an interesting finish to the Tour.

    Results
    1. Daniel Rickardsson
    2. Lukas Bauer
    3. Petter Northug

    Notes: Alex Harvey had another great race, cracking the top 10 to finish in 9th. With the result, he now sits in 19th overall which places three Canadians in the top 20. Kershaw is 16th despite today’s result while Babikov is 12th. Another Russian left the Tour today, Pankratov had fallen victim to the sickness that seems to be sweeping through the men’s Russian team.

    Women

    The race was lead from wire to wire by Justyna Kowalczyk. In a race of this distance, it was surprising to see her open up the gaps she did. By 3.1km, she already had over a 12 second gap on the next fastest skier. Aino Kaisa Saarinen had a good race and finish in second while Petra Majdic rounded out the podium and was 15 seconds behind the Pole. With the win, Kowalczyk reclaimed the overall lead while Follis slipped to 3rd overall. Kowalczyk talked about the race saying…

    It was a great race today for me. I did not have any special tactics for today. I only to wanted to go fast and have a good race. 5 km classic is my favorite distance and technique so it was a good day for me. I like Toblach very much. Tomorrow we have a rest day so I will have time to think about the mass start competition in classic technique on Saturday in Val di Fiemme. There a lot girls who can still fight for the overall victory. Petra Majdic, Aino Kaisa Saarinen, Arianna Follis. Everything is still open and there are tough races ahead of us.

    It’s too bad there weren’t more talented skiers from Poland to make a competitive relay team because Kowalczyk would make a lethal lead out skier. With her hard-as-nails way to racing, she would absolutely tear teams apart with her ability to push through the pain.

    Majdic spoke after the race and mentioned that she has been having trouble with her leg lately, perhaps some sort of muscle related injury and how it’s difficult to heal with the limited amount of time before races. We’ll have to keep note and see how that progresses.

    Results
    1. Justyna Kowalczyk
    2. Aino Kaisa Saarinen
    3. Petra Majdic

    Notes: Even though it was reported that Johaug had dropped out of the Tour yesterday, she was in the tracks today. I’m not sure if the coaching staff had a change of heart or if the young Norwegian pleaded her case to show she deserved one more chance. Either way, she finished a mediocre 30th place today and I expect that the Norwegian staff will be urging for her to go home and train now. Two more athletes dropped out including Olga Rotcheva and Belorussian Ekaterina Rudakova.

    Til Next Time.

  • Stage 6 Preview

    The course for tomorrows rather short courses – a 5km for the women and a 10km for the men – will see like sprints compared to today’s races. They will be in the classic style and the course appears to have a couple good climbs on it including one that rises 40 meters in elevation from the 1.9km to the 2.3km mark of the 5km loop. With only three stages left, the contenders have realistically been widdled down to 18 on the men’s side and only four in contention on the women’s side. Tomorrows race is the first true individual start and I expect the overall standings to be mixed up a little bit, even without any bonus seconds on the line.

    On the men’s side, Bauer is the odds on favorite at 5.00. If you wanna make some money Babikov it at 101.00 to win, a pretty nice payout if he races like he did today. No one has seem to put out odds for the women as of yet, but for my money’s worth, I would have Saarinen taking the race.

    Women
    1. Aino Kaisa Saarinen
    2. Justyna Kowalczyk
    3. Petra Majdic

    Men
    1. Dario Cologna
    2. Lukas Bauer
    3. Axel Teichmann

    Some more exits from the Tour include Angerer, who leaves due to sickness. As I incorrectly reported yesterday that Johaug went home after the Prague sprint, today she is officially going home now. She has yet to show the form that we all know she possess and must find it before the Olympics.

    I almost forgot to mention that today Petter Northug’s turned 24. What’s a better way to celebrate you birthday than with a win? Probably with the Tour de Ski title.

    Til Tomorrow.

  • Stage 5: Cortina-Toblach

    Today saw the start of the distance races with the first point A to B race of the Tour. It was pursuit style so there were expectations of great battles and tactics on the course. The results of this race would determine the overall classification of the Tour. Simple concept: win the race and you become the Tour leader.

    Men

    From the very near the beginning, it was a lead pack of five consisting of Hellner, Northug, Teichmann, Østensen, and Cologna. A chase group of three formed including Kershaw, Heikkinen and Gaillard. Shortly after starting up the climb after the 12.7km check point, Østensen began to struggle with the pace and was subsequently dropped from the lead pack.

    At the Ospitale time check at 12.7km, the top four were still together with Heikkinen and Gaillard still gaining only 19 seconds back while Kershaw and Østensen were finding it hard to hang on to the Fin and Frenchman. While the likes of Angerer, Jauhojärvi, and Harvey were loosing a lot of time (1:18, 1:55, and 1:49) to the leaders and slipping down the leaderboard, Babikov was making rapid gains as he hopped from 26th to 16th gaining 37 seconds. By about the 15km mark, the Heikkinen and Gaillard caught the leaders and that group grew to six strong. While the old chase group splintered, the new one had taken shape with 11 skiers who was about 40 seconds back at the next time check, but slowly gaining on the leaders.

    It was the same standings at the 23.2km time check for the top 18 while everyone else was losing more and more time. The same came be said at 27.2km. It was like they were figurines traveling down the track at the same speed from 12 to 32 kms. Rather boring for the spectator.

    Just after the 32.8km check, things started to get interesting. It seems that the athletes have wizened up to Northug’s tactics and with about 3km left, Hellner thought it was go time. He broke the pack into only three will Northug and Cologna able to hang on. Coming into the home striaght Hellner, Cologna, and Northug were three abreast, and you knew the inevitable was going to happen…again. Northug put in a 100m sprint and eased to the victory with Cologna in second and Hellner in third. The other race was with the main chase pack as they came fast and furious across the line with Curdin Perl having a great race ending in 7th. The fastest time of the day had to go to Babikov who gained 1:12 and 25 places which puts him right into contention being 37 seconds down in 9th overall.

    Results
    1. Petter Northug
    2. Dario Cologna
    3. Marcus Hellner

    Notes: Today saw 20 more men drop out of the Tour, most of them were sprint specialists. Notables included those mentioned in yesterdays blog and Newell, Fredriksson, Kozisek, Pasini, Strandvall, and Lassila. That leaves the men’s field with 62 strong out of the 88 that started back in Oberhof. The Canadians had another great day with Babikov leading the way. After Kershaw’s strong start, he failed to stick with Heikkinen and Gaillard and fell back what eventually became the main pack. He looked much more comfortable there and was able to ski a very good race, ending up in 17th only 48 seconds off the lead. Harvey also had a good race and now sits in 21st. After a couple poor races, George Grey make a huge jump today, going from 55th to 34th overall.

    Women

    The start of the race saw Saarinen hold a very comfortable 25 second lead over Kowalczyk and almost 30 seconds on Majdic. Shortly into the race, Kowalczyk, Majdic, and Follis clumped up and had the same mind-set; chase down Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. They worked very efficiently as a threesome and soon enough they had caught the leader at around the 5km mark. Shortly after becoming a foursome, Majdic attacked but ultimately amounting to nothing as the others reeled here in.

    Not much happened for a while with the athletes taking turn leading and controlling the pace. About 2.5km from the finish, the fun began with Majdic attacking again. This time she was successful and opened up a 20-30 meter gap on the others. However, it was too early as Majdic lost what she gained on the final hill coming into the stadium as Follis and Kowalczyk swallowed up her advantage. Follis overtook Majdic for the victory while Kowalczyk challenged the Slovakian for the second place but ended up in third. Saarinen was unable to hang on and she now sits 27.6 seconds adrift of the lead.

    Results
    1. Arianna Follis
    2. Petra Majdic
    3. Justyna Kowalczyk

    Notes: Like the men, more sprint specialists dropped the Tour in favour of training. Those included Prochzkova, Ingemarsdotter, Brodin, and those mentioned in yesterday’s blog sans Johaug. She is still in the Tour despite me reading an article incorrectly. For Canada, Renner had another good race as she gained six positions to 23rd overall.

    Til Tomorrow.

  • Stage 5 Preview + First Birthday

    Today is the first to two very deserved rest days for the athletes. With the sprint portion of the Tour done for another year, more and more athletes will be dropping out, particularly sprint specialists. One the men’s side, the most notables to leave the Tour will be leader Emil Jönsson, stage 3 winner Eldar Rønning, the the two top Russians Legkov and Vylegzhanin. For Rønning, he needs to train and focus on the Otepää sprints  as he has yet to punch his ticket to the Olympics with the Norwegian team. Like Rønning, Jönsson dropped out of the Tour with the greater of the Olympics, though it was a difficult decision for him because of the phenomenal racing he had done. He had to follow through with his plan that he set out for beforehand. According to langd.se,  the drop out of the Russian’s is very suspicious as Legkov was sick in Prague already but Vylegzhanin didn’t know anything about his sickness until the morning when he was told so. Langd.se believes it is due to high hematocrit levels, which Vylegzhanin has flirted with already this year in Davos.

    On the women’s side it’ll be Evi Sachenbacker-Stehle and Therese Johaug simply because of poor performances. The German will be joined by Herman and Fessel, remember Gössner, Böhler, Nystad and Henkel have already been German’s who have dropped the Tour. The only German female athlete left is Katrin Zeller while the others will most likely have a difficult training camp in preparation of the Olympics. Also, Celine Brun-Lie’s run came to an end after a great result in the Prague sprint and will go home to train for Otepää while Natalia Korosteleva is following her preparations for the Olympics and has headed home to train as well.

    Tomorrow sees the start of the second half of the Tour. The women will be doing a 15km point A to point B freestyle race while the men will be doing double that distance. The course profile appears to be the easiest race ever put on the World Cup circuit for the women. According to it, the course elevation drops constantly over the first 12.5km (a total of 200m) with a couple climbs in the last 2.5km. Comparing that to the men’s profile,  it appears that the women get the easy part of the men’s course. The first 16km of the men’s course is almost a consistent climb that gains a total of almost 300m. A good warm-up for the Alpe Cermis I guess. Predictions:

    Women
    1. Petra Madjic
    2. Justyna Kowalczyk
    3. Kristin Størmer Steira

    Men
    1. Dario Cologna
    2. Marcus Hellner
    3. Matti Heikkinen

    Also, today marks the first birthday of Nordic Xplained. I started off this blog last year as a means to put my opinions about races and racers on something physical. After failing to find a forum (in english) where I could discuss topics about the World Cup, I decided that this was the best option. At first, I was only getting a handful of visitors the first couple months, but now it’s gotten much bigger and it’s all because of you, the readers. Personally, I’m actually quite surprised how many people are actually interested in what I have to say. Over the past week, the blog has been getting in between 150-300 readers a day!

    I know that there was a huge break from the end of last season to the Rogla races, but I’ve gotten my act together and hope to be more dedicated to the site. If I won’t be blogging, I’ll make someone else will and you’ll see this start when the World Cup comes to Canada and the Olympics begin at the start of February (On that note, if you are interested in writing for this blog, just contact me via e-mail:)). I just want to say thanks for tuning in and hopefully this blog is filling a niche for you readers in this thing we call the internet.

    Til Tomorrow.

  • Stage 5 Preview + First Birthday

    Today is the first to two very deserved rest days for the athletes. With the sprint portion of the Tour done for another year, more and more athletes will be dropping out, particularly sprint specialists. One the men’s side, the most notables to leave the Tour will be leader Emil Jönsson, stage 3 winner Eldar Rønning, the the two top Russians Legkov and Vylegzhanin. For Rønning, he needs to train and focus on the Otepää sprints  as he has yet to punch his ticket to the Olympics with the Norwegian team. Like Rønning, Jönsson dropped out of the Tour with the greater of the Olympics, though it was a difficult decision for him because of the phenomenal racing he had done. He had to follow through with his plan that he set out for beforehand. According to langd.se,  the drop out of the Russian’s is very suspicious as Legkov was sick in Prague already but Vylegzhanin didn’t know anything about his sickness until the morning when he was told so. Langd.se believes it is due to high hematocrit levels, which Vylegzhanin has flirted with already this year in Davos.

    On the women’s side it’ll be Evi Sachenbacker-Stehle and Therese Johaug simply because of poor performances. The German will be joined by Herman and Fessel, remember Gössner, Böhler, Nystad and Henkel have already been German’s who have dropped the Tour. The only German female athlete left is Katrin Zeller while the others will most likely have a difficult training camp in preparation of the Olympics. Also, Celine Brun-Lie’s run came to an end after a great result in the Prague sprint and will go home to train for Otepää while Natalia Korosteleva is following her preparations for the Olympics and has headed home to train as well.

    Tomorrow sees the start of the second half of the Tour. The women will be doing a 15km point A to point B freestyle race while the men will be doing double that distance. The course profile appears to be the easiest race ever put on the World Cup circuit for the women. According to it, the course elevation drops constantly over the first 12.5km (a total of 200m) with a couple climbs in the last 2.5km. Comparing that to the men’s profile,  it appears that the women get the easy part of the men’s course. The first 16km of the men’s course is almost a consistent climb that gains a total of almost 300m. A good warm-up for the Alpe Cermis I guess. Predictions:

    Women
    1. Petra Madjic
    2. Justyna Kowalczyk
    3. Kristin Størmer Steira

    Men
    1. Dario Cologna
    2. Marcus Hellner
    3. Matti Heikkinen

    Also, today marks the first birthday of Nordic Xplained. I started off this blog last year as a means to put my opinions about races and racers on something physical. After failing to find a forum (in english) where I could discuss topics about the World Cup, I decided that this was the best option. At first, I was only getting a handful of visitors the first couple months, but now it’s gotten much bigger and it’s all because of you, the readers. Personally, I’m actually quite surprised how many people are actually interested in what I have to say. Over the past week, the blog has been getting in between 150-300 readers a day!

    I know that there was a huge break from the end of last season to the Rogla races, but I’ve gotten my act together and hope to be more dedicated to the site. If I won’t be blogging, I’ll make someone else will and you’ll see this start when the World Cup comes to Canada and the Olympics begin at the start of February (On that note, if you are interested in writing for this blog, just contact me via e-mail:)). I just want to say thanks for tuning in and hopefully this blog is filling a niche for you readers in this thing we call the internet.

    Til Tomorrow.